2x02 Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak

[8.0/10] I like how much this episode puts the focus on Eleven and what she’s been through since we last saw her. I’ll be frank -- I’m pretty sure I could watch a sitcom that was just Hopper and Eleven as a cute adoptive dad/daughter situation for at least a few seasons. The two are adorable together, with Hopper doing his best to parent a young girl who’s been through something unreal and Eleven missing contact with the outside world and wanting to reach out to the other people who love her. Their dynamic is very sweet and the conflict between keeping Eleven safe versus keeping her emotionally fulfilled is a strong one.

I also like the little wordless flashbacks we get showing us her journey from there to here. The escape from the Upside Down, the encounter with the hunter, and the discovery of the waffles Hopper left for her in last season’s finale all convey just enough about what Eleven has experienced without belaboring it. We understand her hardship and desperation, and it fills in just enough of the details to let us understand how things went down while letting the actual moments between her and Hopper fill in the rest of the gaps.

But what i like the most is how the episode doesn't shy away from this being tough on her, and frankly, tough on Mike too. We see Hopper doing his best, but leaving Eleven home by herself most of the day. We see ehr glued to the T.V. (flipping channels with her mind, a cool little detail), as her only source of entertainment and human connection when he’s gone. And in the closing moments, we see her reaching out to Mike, crying when she can’t make contact, and yearning for that human connection that’s hard to go without, even when you have a loving surrogate father who’s struggling, but doing his best.

With that, I also like where the show goes with Mike here. He’s been through a lot too, and his frustration with the situation is palpable. The last episode suggests a child acting out because he’s unhappy with the state of things, even with his friend WIll back, and much of that has to be chalked up to losing Eleven. It’s a loss he’s clearly still struggling from, which partly explains his resistance to Max, who he clearly feels is the group attempting to replace someone irreplaceable in their group. His daily radio check-ins for her are sweet and asd, and the episode does a nice job of showing these two middle school aged kids missing one another and how that hurts without making it standard preteen heartache.

That tack follows with Nancy, who is a little cruel here, but understandably so. Again, I like the complication with her here, where she feels like she’s the only one who hasn’t forgotten what happened with Barb, and who’s buckling under the guilt of not being able to tell her parents or anyone about it, lest the feds put them in jail or worse.

Steve understands what’s at stake and tries to convince her to just have a normal night, which leads to a Halloween party where she gets drunk in what’s almost an act of defiance. Her decrying of Steve’s notions and even her love for him as “bullshit” wounds him deeply, and you feel bad for the poor dumb himbo, but you also understnad what Nancy’s going through and why she feels that way, which is the mark of good writing.

I’ll admit, I don't love that, of course, Jonathan is there to play knight in shining armor. I like the show better when it’s not love triangling (triangulating?) this whole thing. But the business with Stevev and the party gone wrong are all quite good.

We also get hints at the deeper things gone wrong here. I like Hopper being tied up with a blight on crops and other flora which suggests that somehow the Upside Down is bleeding into our world, causing devastation. It’s a hint that these plants are the canary in the coal mine, harbingers for something worse coming. We also get that in Will’s “episode”, where he sees some sort of Eldritch Abomination threatening to wipe out everything with cool special effects and design work for the smoke-like, tentacled beast that looms large on the horizon.

Despite all of that heaviness, this one is also tons of fun. I just love the four young boys dressing up as the Ghostbusters, replete with pointed conversations over who gets to be Venkman, fun use of the Ghostbusters theme song, and amusing interactions with Max after the four of them are the only ones who dress up on Halloween. It’s these moments that feel closer to the tone of something like Freaks and Geeks, and it’s very endearing.

SPeaking of which, I am, all of a sudden, 100% sold on Bob, at least as a character. I’m still confident that the show’s endgame is Joyce + Hopper, especially with the moment they share after Joyce finds Will’s sketch of the Eldritch Monster. But Bob is so dorky and so sweet, dancing with Joyce to Kenny Rogers, making corny dad jokes to Will, and even suggesting they get out of this town and start a family together. Sean Astin is, only two episodes in, already a wonderful addition, and I don’t even mind that he’s all but destined to be the Baxter. Joyce deseres a little corny sweetness in her life right now.

Otherwise, we see the feds continuing to experiment in the Upside Down, replete with a satellite setup there which suggests there's something more pernicious afoot, potentially something that explains why the giant creature seems so mad. We get some cute moments with Dustin and Lucas’s continued courtship of Max. We get a scary scene where Max’s big brother proves himself to be an unrepentant asshole, nearly running over the boys. And we continue to see that Mikee and Nancy’s parents are just the worst at supervising their kids.

Overall, this is another winner for the show, with some fun Halloween m moments mixed in with some quality character development and pathos for Eleven, Mike, and Nancy.